


In Your Heart Shall Burn

by ubertastic



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Time Skip, blatant Edelgard apologism, getting advice from strange girls you find in your professor's room, support conversation spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-27 09:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21389881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ubertastic/pseuds/ubertastic
Summary: Edelgard finds something unexpected when she goes to the professor's room to talk about the month's mission. An apparition, floating in the corner, who can see her, too.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg & Sothis, implied Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 12
Kudos: 190





	In Your Heart Shall Burn

**Author's Note:**

> AU where Edelgard's Crest of Flames lets her see and interact with Sothis
> 
> background Edeleth because I love the idea of super goal-oriented Edelgard not being able to help having feelings for Byleth despite herself. title comes from Dragon Age, another popular game series featuring fantasy!Catholicism.
> 
> "In your heart shall burn / An unquenchable flame / All-consuming, and never satisfied." - Canticle of Threnodies 5:7

There is a girl in the professor’s room.

That in itself isn’t unusual; Byleth gets plenty of visitors at nearly all hours of the day. But this girl, with her pointed ears sticking out past her bright green hair and the way she _floats_ near Byleth’s bed, is nothing short of an anomaly. 

Not to mention, Edelgard has never seen her in her life.

Stepping into the room tentatively, Edelgard checks the other corners for signs of any other possible apparitions and exhales heavily through her nose when she finds none. Turning her attention to the girl, Edelgard asks, “Are you here to speak with the professor?”

The girl’s eyes widen, clearly not expecting the question. “You can see me? How curious.”

“Does the professor not know that you’re here?” Edelgard reaches out a hand, almost by instinct, before stopping herself. Trying to touch the strange, floating girl is probably rude. 

“Your professor is most privy to my existence,” the girl scoffs, “but you are the first of Byleth’s children to acknowledge it as well.”

Of all the conflicting feelings Edelgard has towards Byleth, those of a child to a parent are the last to have ever crossed her mind, and the comparison has her frowning.

“Have you always been here?”

“I did not originate in the monastery, if that is what you are asking. I used to accompany Byleth on her daily tasks, but I found watching her dine for so many hours to be dreadfully boring.”

A small smile creeps onto Edelgard’s lips at the swipe, but she’s quick to hide it behind a hand. Byleth did have a strange habit of eating with just about everyone in the monastery, her own students and otherwise. How she managed to fit so much food in her, Edelgard would never know.

“I did find learning about all of you children to be quite amusing, however,” the girl continues, rubbing her chin in thought. “If I remember correctly, _you_ favor those flowers that look like ruffled paper… carnations, were they?”

Edelgard blushes too easily for how freely the reference is thrown out—just how often must Byleth give her flowers that this girl remembers her favorite? The implications of that alone threaten to arrest her heart—but it appears the girl does recognize her, after all. 

Coughing into a fist, Edelgard recomposes herself. “Could you let the professor know I was here? I was hoping to catch her before she took off for the day, but it’s clear that I’ve missed her.”

“Do I look like your messenger?” the girl asks, crossing her arms and rising a few more inches off of the ground as though buoyed by her indignation. “If you had the slightest conception of who I am, child, you would know to treat me with far more respect than that.”

"My apologies," Edelgard says, instinctively more than anything else. Her childhood was far from typical, but she was raised with manners all the same. "Perhaps you should inform me, so that I won’t make the same mistake again."

The girl frowns, looking unsure of herself for the first time since Edelgard entered the room. "I recently awoke from a long slumber, and though it pains me to admit, there are yet still things I struggle to remember."

"I see. Well, it's obvious to me that you are a being of considerable power, even despite your memory loss," Edelgard tells the girl. There are, after all, very few things in legend with pointed ears, and all of them could wreak unimaginable havoc on humankind.

Preening, the girl grins and relaxes into her hover. “I suppose Byleth is raising her whelps better than I expected. You may stay and wait for her, if you so wish.”

“I couldn’t,” Edelgard immediately protests. “I’m sure you value your privacy. I shouldn’t intrude.”

“Nonsense! Byleth can’t be long now, and you surely had an important reason to come all the way to her room to speak with her.”

Edelgard worries her lower lip, legs twitching with the desire to move. But further in or out of the room, she’s unsure.

“The thoughts that weigh on your mind do not appear to be simple,” the girl says, a wide, _gentle_ smile on her face. Not unlike a mother to a child. “Come, share them with me, so that I may be able to lessen their load.”

This girl is a stranger—a downright _bizarre _one at that—but Edelgard feels a connection to her, deep in her bones. As though their blood is the same, pumping in tandem through two bodies. Throwing caution to the wind, Edelgard steps deeper into the room, pulling out Byleth’s desk chair and taking a seat.

And then, her words having fled her, she stares at the girl, hands fisted in her red tights. Red, like the blood of Lonato’s men that the Church had them dispatch just a few days ago, like the blood of the bandits a month prior. 

Red, like the blood Edelgard will have to keep shedding if the future she dreams for has any hope of coming to fruition. 

“What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?” Edelgard eventually asks, once she’s found her voice again.

The girl grins wider, if that’s at all possible. “And what do you hope to learn if I were to tell you? When you are faced with hardship, there is often no answer but to grit your teeth and push through it. You strike me as someone already quite familiar with such a concept.”

“And if the hardship is a condition you must create for yourself? Is there not always just an option to avoid it altogether?”

“That, of course, depends on how much you truly believe in your goal,” the girl says, almost dismissively. “Is it worth undergoing such hardship to achieve it? If that answer is yes, then everything else falls into place quite simply.”

“Then answer me this: how can I believe as strongly in my goals as I do, and yet so greatly fear what it will take to accomplish them?” The words are raw, an admission Edelgard typically refuses to spare for herself even in her weakest moments.

But she is not heartless, and she knows what waits on the winds once she sets her plans into motion. She must appear unshakeable at all costs, but she can't help but wonder, usually late at night when her nightmares deny her sleep, what it will take for her resolve to break.

Will it be in the face of killing her fellow students, who see her as nothing other than the distant Black Eagles house leader? Or maybe killing her own house members who inevitably refuse to join her cause?

Or perhaps it will be in the face of killing Byleth, who despite her best judgement, Edelgard continues to let through every wall.

At times, Edelgard wishes when Those Who Slither in the Dark twisted her body for their own purposes, they could have left her the emotionless husk she pretends to be, ready to see any number of atrocities enacted for the sake of her goals, instead of choking on her own decisions and hiding her weakness behind a mask like a coward.

"Ah, and so we arrive at what you are truly here for," the girl says, sending Edelgard a sympathetic look. From anyone else, Edelgard might interpret it as pity, but her heart thrums at a wavelength so in line with this strange ghost that she knows the girl _understands_. 

"It is good that you feel fear," the girl continues. "Any powerful person should. Once you stop being afraid, you start being capable of truly terrifying things."

"Then how do I know when to listen to the fear and when to push it aside? When does it stop being bravery and start being foolhardiness?"

The girl crosses her arms, considering it. "If there were an easy answer to that, I doubt life would be very hard at all. But you shouldn't overlook you own ability to know, and if you can't, there will always be others willing to help you."

Edelgard frowns. "Others' 'help' is what I fear more than anything else," she admits bitterly. 

Between the sick idea that Those Who Slither in the Dark consider help and the notion that any of Edelgard's current allies (Hubert aside) will happily turn on her once she's stopped hiding in the dark herself, reaching out is not something Edelgard takes lightly. If at all.

"You underestimate Byleth," the girls says, simply, as if she were commenting on the weather.

Edelgard recoils from the comment as though slapped. "Excuse me?"

"Do you truly think she would hesitate from shouldering whatever burden you are so afraid of sharing with her?" the girl asks. She yawns into a hand, lazily. "Perhaps I misjudged you after all."

Edelgard wants to protest—this ghost knows nothing of who she is, let alone her relationship with Byleth—but the words die in her chest, long before she can voice them. Maybe… maybe it is not too much to dream that Byleth would stand with her when the time comes to take on the world.

"You seem reassured," the girl comments, idly. "Good, I was just tiring of this conversation. You may leave at your own leisure."

"Oh? But I just got here."

The new voice sends an electric shock through Edelgard's body, like being hit by an errant thunder spell. If she were anyone else, she even may have jumped at the sound.

"Professor!" Edelgard says, standing and dutifully pushing in the desk chair. "My apologies for intruding."

"Don't apologize," Byleth says, waving off her concern. If she is at all surprised to see Edelgard in her room, she doesn't show it. "How long did I make you wait?"

"It wasn't long at all. And I found a way to pass the time," Edelgard replies, gaze drawn to the girl floating in the corner despite herself.

Byleth's eyes track the motion, before returning to regard Edelgard, impassive as ever. "Well, what did you need to speak with me about?"

Edelgard thinks about it—what _had_ she come here for? Probably something to do with the Rite of Rebirth ceremony at the end of the month, but in the moment, her mind is strangely clear, even of much more pressing matters than that. 

“Actually, it seems I’ve figured it out already,” Edelgard says. “Thank you for your help, as always.”

Byleth blinks at her and tilts her head ever so slightly to the side—clearly confused as to why Edelgard would be thanking her. “Of course. My door is always open if you need it.”

Edelgard nods and steps past Byleth to leave the room. On her way out, however, she sends a small smile to the girl in the corner, still hovering a foot off the floor and looking terribly amused at watching the two interact.

“And what’s that grin for?” Byleth’s voice drifts through the door behind Edelgard, soft enough that if Edelgard didn’t know better, she could have imagined it.

Covering her own with a hand, Edelgard makes her way back to the Eagles’ classroom.

**Author's Note:**

> many thanks to @anamuan for the beta read


End file.
